#Auto-tracking technology

[marlynnofmany]

Handy Tools

For some people, an afternoon spent blasting across a desert on a hoverbike with the passenger behind them wrapping tentacles around their waist would be a charming date. For me, it was a work day, and our delivery was about to be late.

I yelled over the wind, “Am I going too fast for you?”

Mur’s voice was muffled against my shirt. “I’m just glad I don’t have to steer at these speeds. Keep going.”

I went faster. Now that I’d been officially trained on the hoverbike, I was going to enjoy every opportunity to use it. Especially since it turned out that most of my coworkers didn’t actually like seeing the scenery flash past at breakneck speeds, with the wind in their hair (or lack thereof).

Their loss. I caught some air going over a low sand dune, and allowed myself a whoop of joy. Mur didn’t hold on any tighter, but that was because he had all his other tentacles suctioned onto the bike. Nobody stays in their seat like a Strongarm who’s properly motivated. He reminded me of cats I’d known who spent trips to the vet with their claws sunk into whichever soft surface was in reach. All that was missing was the yowling.

A gust of wind buffeted us sideways, but the bike’s auto-balance function kept it upright. With a thought for how much I would have liked that kind of technology in my childhood bicycle, I steered us back on track toward the distant buildings on the edge of the desert. The plan had been for our client to come meet us at the spaceport, but something had come up on their end, and they still needed the package in a hurry. Luckily for all involved, it fit in the storage compartment of our courier ship’s speedy little hovercycle. And I was happy to deliver it at high speed to a building that the ship couldn’t land near.

Eventually we’d be weaving through city streets and I’ve have to slow down. All the more reason to make up time with the high speeds now.

But of course it couldn’t be that easy. As I crested another rise, a herd of small things on the ground swarmed toward us out of nowhere.

I swerved hard, but no luck; there were far too many to avoid. With the wind behind them, they flowed under the hoverbike and onto its lower parts, where a bunch of the round little whatevers stuck fast.

The bike coasted to a stop, despite my efforts to urge it faster. The rest of the things ghosted merrily away, looking more like inanimate objects blown by the wind than like living creatures. Dozens of them were stuck to the bike.

Mur swore loudly in his own language, a series of rippling pops that sounded like someone going to town on a bunch of birthday balloons. Which seemed pretty appropriate, actually.

“What are these?” I asked, turning off the engine. They looked like little sand-beige balloons with leaves at the bottom. Were they plants?

They were.

“A muddy problem is what they are,” Mur said, loosening his tentacles and opening the storage compartment. “Seed pods famous around here for gumming up electronics by getting stuck where they shouldn’t. You can’t just pull ‘em off; you have to pop them.”

I got to my feet, careful to keep my legs away from the things. “Are they dangerous to touch?”

Mur climbed halfway into the storage compartment, digging with his tentacles around the package. “No. Just hard to puncture. Where is the toolkit?”

I had a sudden memory of our ship’s mechanic saying something about borrowing it while I was talking to the captain about the delivery. Uh oh. “I think we left before Mimi put it back.”

With an angry tentacle slap against the bike, Mur dug faster. “There’s got to be something pointy in here. Maybe in the medkit?”

While he pulled that out and sifted through the bandages, I got a closer look at the seed pods. They reminded me of pufferfish: a little spiky, and rubbery when I poked one. Oddly enough, it didn’t stick to my finger, just the bike. Seeds rattled inside.

Further pop-swearing told me there wasn’t anything particularly sharp in the tiny medkit. Mur shut it with a snap and looked around at the desert. “See any sticks?”

I did not. “There’s probably something at the town, but that’s a bit of a walk. Are you sure we can’t just rip them open? Are they toxic to bite?”

“Definitely don’t bite them,” Mur said. “I’ve heard stories of what those seeds can do to a digestive system.”

“By hand, though?” I tried to pinch one, but it was like trying to tear open an over-inflated kickball. Thin material, just without enough give to dig my fingers in. A pushpin would have done it. I kept trying anyway. “I see what you mean.”

Mur started tugging at various parts of the hoverbike. “And of course we can’t take off a sharp metal bit without tools either. And neither of us have claws. What around here is pointy?”

“Well, I almost have claws,” I said, looking at my fingernails. “Maybe I could bite one into a point. Or actually—” The nail on my middle finger was the longest. I dug a thumbnail into the corner and ripped the end off, then handed the tiny crescent to Mur. “Is this sharp enough?”

“What’s this?” He took it in his tentacle, surprised.

“Fingernail,” I said, waggling my fingers. “Mine are soft enough to tear off pretty easily. It’ll grow back.”

Mur blinked in surprise but didn’t comment. He just grasped it firmly with his most dexterous tentacle, and popped a seedpod with it.

“Hooray!” I said as seeds rained down and the pod deflated. To my surprise, it promptly detached from the bike as well.

“We might just be on time after all.” Mur started popping with a vengeance, swarming over the bike to get everything within reach.

I sacrificed another fingernail — ring finger this time — and joined in. Between my long arms and his maneuverability, we soon had all of the troublesome things collapsing onto the sandy ground.

I wondered briefly about the biology at work; maybe the outer surface of the pods would decompose into nutrients for the seeds. But then Mur was climbing back onto the seat, and we had other things to worry about.

“I’m going to make sure that toolkit goes back where it belongs the moment we get back,” Mur said. He opened the storage compartment and dropped the fingernail inside. “Keeping these, though. Gimme the other one.”

I handed it over with a smile and got back into place while he shut the compartment. The bike started as if there had never been anything wrong. I was a bit curious about that too, but figured it was something for Mimi to figure out when he gave the bike a checkup later.

After we delivered our package, that is. I kicked it into high gear, and with Mur holding on for dear life, I blasted off across the desert once again. The wind in my hair felt great.

~~~

These are the ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book.

Shared early on Patreon! There’s even a free tier to get them on the same day as the rest of the world.

The sequel novel is in progress (and will include characters from these stories. I hadn’t thought all of them up when I wrote the first book, but they’re too much fun to leave out of the second).

[robin-evry]

Heeeyyyyy~ it’s a me again, so just watched the Transformers one movie, and it got me thinking of what would happen if Yuu was a cybertronian/Transformer? Like alien robot that Can transform into a vehicle isekaied to a magic School? Imagine the fun! the chaos! They can pick up the overblot students and put them in air jail like a misbehaving cat! Ortho finally has a bestie!!!!

Sure thing, ask and you shall receive

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐔𝐔 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐂𝐘𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐀𝐍 👾🤖

Cybertronians are a species of autonomous robotic organisms originating from the distant planet called Cybertron that had their essences transferred into robotic bodies known as "Transformers".

Cybertronian!Yuu one of by far most unique students ever, they tower over most of the students. By cybertronian!yuu has received some modification in twst that helps them fit in the world more.

They can partially transform parts of their body into mechanical tools, like shields, scanners, or even small weaponry. This ability has led to some interesting duels in combat class, where they improvises with forms no one expects.

Cybertronian!Yuu sees magic as something like a digital matrix, with each spell having its own “source code.” While they may struggle with traditional spellcasting, Cybertronian Yuu can often rewrite spells or make unique modifications, leading to unexpected effects. This adaptability often puts them at odds with teachers, yet impresses friends like Ace and Deuce.

Cybertronian!Yuu can store and retrieve a ton of information like a living database, sometimes glitching and blurting out random trivia. Ace and Deuce find it hilarious, but it occasionally becomes handy, especially during exams.

Do you know the meme of the song I woke up in a new Bugatti, that's the first year riding on cybertronian!yuu on their transformation form. They have become their friends chauffeur around school pretty much everywhere.

Ortho + Cybertronian!Yuu : robot besties.

NRC tend to call them both a “tech wiz.” They often exchange “upgrades” and tech secrets, and Ortho even helps Cybertronian!Yuu unlock hidden Cybertronian features that they were previously unaware of. They’re like the school’s tech-savvy duo, making Idia’s life easier and sometimes scaring him with their synchronized techno-speak.

Cybertronian! Yuu has an “echo mode” that lets them record and replay sounds, which Rook finds utterly fascinating for tracking creatures or investigating mysteries. Sometimes, they use it to replay people’s voices, teasing Ace or copying Riddle’s strict tone. Grim once caught them imitating the Headmage and nearly exposed them!

Their system has an auto-translate function for languages, magical runes, and even animal sounds, making them NRC’s unofficial interpreter. This skill shines with Sebek, who tries to one-up them in translating ancient text, and with Kalim, who loves hearing animal translations from the Spirit of the Dunes.

Inspired by Pomefiore’s focus on beauty, they develop a “glamour mode” that projects holographic outfits, allowing them to “try on” new looks with a simple transformation. Rook and Vil are fascinated by their ability to shift appearances at will, and Vil even pushes them to “update” their glamour mode regularly to keep up with fashion trends.

Cybertronian!yuu is very curious about the world around them, since originally back in Cybertron there wasn't any organic like plant-life. You can find them being curious and browsing things that find them interesting.

When seriously damaged, cybertronian!Yuu has an auto-repair protocol that initiates a regeneration process. This usually involves a “recharging stasis” where they power down for a few hours to restore internal systems by transforming into a metal box to repair any damages coming to their body and database.

They also have the ability to heck or connect themselves into different technologies, they can see through the technology database as well copying the abilities of the technology.

They discovers they can use holo-projections to mimic voices and create illusions. With Ace and Grim, Yuu pulls harmless pranks like projecting an image of Crowley, scaring students into thinking he’s around.

During battles, cybertronian!yuu possessed a wide range of arsenal weapons. But one of their favorite styles of fighting is basically running over the enemies in their transformation form.

Imagine overblot Azul laughing and yapping about something, and the next thing he got hit by a vehicle as well putting their enemies in time out.

[robfinancialtip]

In this informative video, Kaaren Thompson from Karma Dog Speak shares her experience with the Halo 3 Collar, a groundbreaking innovation in the world of pet technology. As a seasoned user of the Halo Collar, Kaaren provides a comprehensive Halo Collar review, shedding light on the collar's impressive features and enhancements.

Kaaren introduces us to Cosmo, her furry companion adorned with the cutting-edge Halo 3 Collar since its release on September 1st. This collar has been a game-changer in Kaaren's extensive journey as a Halo dog owner.

The Halo 3 introduces exciting new elements, including a range of vibrant colors like Orchid, Sunburst, gray, and white. With a new magnetic charging port, this collar is not only stylish but also waterproof, allowing dogs like Cosmo to enjoy a dip without compromising functionality. The collar's GPS satellite technology has seen incredible improvements, offering a global connection via AI, Bluetooth, cellular, and Wi-Fi. This means your pet can roam freely, regardless of your location, and stay connected to the network.

One remarkable feature Kaaren highlights is the Halo Collar's beacon functionality, serving as both a keep-away and stay-in zone. This innovative capability provides pet owners like Kaaren with the ability to create boundaries indoors and outdoors, ensuring safety and training.

Kaaren shares personal anecdotes, including instances where the Halo Collar played a crucial role in bringing back an escaped dog, demonstrating the collar's effectiveness in real-life situations. The collar's remote feature allows Kaaren to call back her dogs with a simple signal, promoting positive dog training and providing freedom for dogs in various environments.

Beyond the technology, Kaaren emphasizes the positive impact the Halo 3 Collar has had on her relationship with her dogs, providing a unique sense of freedom and safety. The collar's waterproof design and magnetic charging port add to its durability, making it an ideal choice for outdoor dog activities.

The Halo Collar isn't just a tracking device; it's also a reliable dog activity tracker, ensuring that your furry friend stays healthy and active. With a focus on dog safety, this collar combines technology and practicality to offer pet owners peace of mind.

Whether your dog is a water enthusiast or an escape artist, the Halo Collar proves to be a reliable companion. Kaaren encourages viewers to consider this best outdoor dog collar for its flexibility, global connectivity, and the peace of mind it brings to pet owners. Remember to follow Kaaren on her social media channels for more insights, and if you found this video helpful, feel free to like, subscribe, and join the conversation.

🐶UNRIVALED FEATURES!🐶 CHECK OUT THE GAME-CHANGING FEATS OF THE NEW HALO COLLAR 3:

✅ New PrecisionGPS(™) Technology ✅ New Active GPS Antenna ✅ 24-hour Battery Life ✅ Auto-connect to Any Cellular Network Worldwide ✅ New Perfect Fit System ✅ Magnetic Charging Port ✅ New Colors: Orchid and Sunburst

NEW COLORS Halo Collar 3 is available in 4 vibrant colors: ✅GRAY ✅BLACK ✅ORCHID🆕 ✅SUNBURST🆕

CHAPTERS: 00:00: Halo Collar Overview 02:55: Halo Collar Features 04:06: Virtual GPS Boundaries and Active Tracking

[mariacallous]

With the Olympic torch extinguished in Paris, all eyes are turning to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics.

The host city has promised that the next Summer Games will be “car-free.”

For people who know Los Angeles, this seems overly optimistic. The car remains king in LA, despite growing public transit options.

When LA hosted the Games in 1932, it had an extensive public transportation system, with buses and an extensive network of electric streetcars. Today, the trolleys are long gone; riders say city buses don’t come on schedule, and bus stops are dirty. What happened?

This question fascinates me because I am a business professor who studies why society abandons and then sometimes returns to certain technologies, such as vinyl records, landline phones, and metal coins. The demise of electric streetcars in Los Angeles and attempts to bring them back today vividly demonstrate the costs and challenges of such revivals.

Riding the Red and Yellow Cars

Transportation is a critical priority in any city, but especially so in Los Angeles, which has been a sprawling metropolis from the start.

In the early 1900s, railroad magnate Henry Huntington, who owned vast tracts of land around LA, started subdividing his holdings into small plots and building homes. In order to attract buyers, he also built a trolley system that whisked residents from outlying areas to jobs and shopping downtown.

By the 1930s, Los Angeles had a vibrant public transportation network, with over 1,000 miles of electric streetcar routes, operated by two companies: Pacific Electric Railway, with its “Red Cars,” and Los Angeles Railway, with its “Yellow Cars.”

The system wasn’t perfect by any means. Many people felt that streetcars were inconvenient and also unhealthy when they were jammed with riders. Moreover, streetcars were slow because they had to share the road with automobiles. As auto usage climbed and roads became congested, travel times increased.

Nonetheless, many Angelenos rode the streetcars—especially during World War II, when gasoline was rationed and automobile plants shifted to producing military vehicles.

Demise of Public Transit

The end of the war marked the end of the line for streetcars. The war effort had transformed oil, tire, and car companies into behemoths, and these industries needed new buyers for goods from the massive factories they had built for military production. Civilians and returning soldiers were tired of rationing and war privations, and they wanted to spend money on goods such as cars.

After years of heavy usage during the war, Los Angeles’ streetcar system needed an expensive capital upgrade. But in the mid-1940s, most of the system was sold to a company called National City Lines, which was partly owned by the carmaker General Motors, the oil companies Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum, and the Firestone tire company.

These powerful forces had no incentive to maintain or improve the old electric streetcar system. National City ripped up tracks and replaced the streetcars with buses that were built by General Motors, used Firestone tires, and ran on gasoline.

There is a long-running academic debate over whether self-serving corporate interests purposely killed LA’s streetcar system. Some researchers argue that the system would have died on its own, like many other streetcar networks around the world.

The controversy even spilled over into pop culture in the 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which came down firmly on the conspiracy side.

What’s undisputed is that, starting in the mid-1940s, powerful social forces transformed Los Angeles so that commuters had only two choices: drive or take a public bus. As a result, LA became so choked with traffic that it often took hours to cross the city.

In 1990, the Los Angeles Times reported that people were putting refrigerators, desks, and televisions in their cars to cope with getting stuck in horrendous traffic. A swath of movies, from Falling Down to Clueless to La La Land, have featured the next-level challenge of driving in LA.

Traffic was also a concern when LA hosted the 1984 Summer Games, but the Games went off smoothly. Organizers convinced over 1 million people to ride buses, and they got many trucks to drive during off-peak hours. The 2028 games, however, will have roughly 50 percent more athletes competing, which means thousands more coaches, family, friends, and spectators. So simply dusting off plans from 40 years ago won’t work.

Olympic Transportation Plans

Today, Los Angeles is slowly rebuilding a more robust public transportation system. In addition to buses, it now has four light-rail lines—the new name for electric streetcars—and two subways. Many follow the same routes that electric trolleys once traveled. Rebuilding this network is costing the public billions, since the old system was completely dismantled.

Three key improvements are planned for the Olympics. First, LA’s airport terminals will be connected to the rail system. Second, the Los Angeles organizing committee is planning heavily on using buses to move people. It will do this by reassigning some lanes away from cars and making them available for 3,000 more buses, which will be borrowed from other locales.

Finally, there are plans to permanently increase bicycle lanes around the city. However, one major initiative, a bike path along the Los Angeles River, is still under an environmental review that may not be completed by 2028.

Car-Free for 17 Days

I expect that organizers will pull off a car-free Olympics, simply by making driving and parking conditions so awful during the Games that people are forced to take public transportation to sports venues around the city. After the Games end, however, most of LA is likely to quickly revert to its car-centric ways.

As Casey Wasserman, chair of the LA 2028 organizing committee, recently put it: “The unique thing about Olympic Games is for 17 days you can fix a lot of problems when you can set the rules—for traffic, for fans, for commerce—than you do on a normal day in Los Angeles.”

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 10, Number 11

Photo of Alan Licht by Stu Lax

One of the oddest, most disturbing developments in recent years is the devaluation of expertise. If a souped up auto complete program can write a screenplay, who needs writers? If scientific guidelines about how to stave off a plague make us angry or confused, who wants them? Anybody can be anything, given enough cash in their pockets, thought, evidence and fact be damned. So, it is somewhat unfashionable that Dusted continues to seek out artists who are good at what they do, whether they are conservatory trained or DIY, steeped in historical tradition or trying something new. Our monthly Dust highlights another batch of them. Bill Meyer, Andrew Forell, Tim Clarke, Jennifer Kelly, Jonathan Shaw, Ian Mathers and Bryon Hayes contributed.

John Butcher / Florian Stoffner / Chris Corsano — The Glass Changes Shape (Relative Pitch)

This autumn, English saxophonist John Butcher celebrated his 70th birthday. For the occasion his fellow musicians donned t-shirts proclaiming, “You can only trust yourself and the first ∞ John Butcher albums.” Yes, he puts out quite a few, and no, I’m not up to date. The completist’s task is even more daunting when one considers just how much music is packed into each of the nine improvisations on this concert recording, his second with guitarist Florian Stoffner and percussionist Chris Corsano. Timbres, volumes and modes of attack change from second to second, living up the album’s title; not even the music’s form I fixed. No one’s resting on laurels here. Corsano plays with rare spaciousness, and Butcher often seems to be playing up the contrasts between his horns’ tonal fluidity and the jagged edges of Stoffner’s contribution. Pardon the paradox, but each track is a subdivision of ∞, and there’s no end to the time you could spend getting profitably lost in one.

Bill Meyer

Cybotron — Parallel Shift (Tresor)

in 2019, legendary Detroit producer Juan Atkins rebooted his 1980s electro project Cybotron with Laurens van Oswald (nephew of Basic Channel founder Moritz) and Tameko Williams (Detroit In Effect). Atkins takes the technological matrices of his hometown’s now largely defunct manufacturing plants and Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn” and twists them through an afro-futurist wormhole. The trio’s latest 12” single “Parallel Shift” sets Atkins’ robotic vocals and lockstep machine beats against melodic synths and warm bass tones. As Atkins insists on a “parallel shift”, smuggled elements of Clintonesque funk and drifting reverie suggest subversion of strictly linear time. The B-side “Earth” is a more straightforward piece of electro with the emphasis on syncopation. The track flickers with sci-fi synths as Atkins posits human rhythms as a form of cosmic consciousness. Volume up and eyes closed, you will be transported.

Andrew Forell

Dean Drouillard — Mirrors and Ghosts (self-released)

This instrumental solo album by Canadian guitarist Dean Drouillard is a series of hazy noir scenes. At its brightest and most melodic, as in “Portland” and “Gorgasuke,” it’s reminiscent of the vivid, playful miniatures of Opsvik & Jennings’s A Dream I Used to Remember. Elsewhere, the album is decidedly more atmospheric and ambient, akin to the widescreen explorations of Daniel Lanois’s Flesh and Machine. The album’s largely introspective nature is no surprise when you learn Drouillard played and recorded all the instruments himself. His guitar playing in particular is evocative and tastefully restrained. At once intimate and widescreen, Mirrors and Ghosts feels both eerily melancholic and gently uplifting.

Tim Clarke

Fievel Is Glauque — Rong Weicknes (Fat Possum)

Though Fievel Is Glauque are technically a duo — songwriters Zach Phillips (Blanche Blanche Blanche) and Ma Clements on keys and vocals, respectively — for new album Rong Weickes they assembled a crack team of six other players. Musicians on drums, bass, electric guitar, woodwinds and brass flesh out a dizzyingly complex and gratifyingly daft soundworld. Think 1970s prog-folk; think Napoleon Murphy Brock–era Frank Zappa; think Julia Holter spiraling down a jazz-fusion black hole. Rong Weicknes is a LOT. Tellingly, many of the album’s most accessible songs, including singles “As Above So Below” and “Love Weapon,” plus the beautiful and relatively calm “Toute Suite,” arrive early in the track list. Opener “Hover” is perhaps the best example of the band’s bonkers “live in triplicate” working method, in which multiple takes are stacked one on top of another, then chiseled down to reach a final mix. It’s chaotic, like multiple candy-colored Escher staircases spiraling off in different directions at once. In this realm of music-making, too much is never enough, and the line between virtuosic brilliance and over-the-top absurdity bends and blurs. Given the chaos is cumulative, listening to the album from front to back tends to result in ear fatigue during the second half, no matter how many brave attempts it takes to tackle it all in one go.

Tim Clarke

Helena Hauff — Multiplying My Absurdities (Tresor)

Hamburg DJ and producer Helena Hauff’s debut EP for Tresor is three tracks of full-on throwback acid trance. Expertly structured over 22 minutes of build, crescendo and release, Hauff combines thumping beats and bass tones with a detached darkwave cool and a healthy smear of analogue soot. Think Roland drum machines & 303 bass, squelching synths, arpeggio runs and all nature of odd grimy ghosts grumbling in the machines. Hauff reaches her apotheosis on “Punks in the Gym”, named for an Australian rock climb known as the hardest in the world (and now closed as an Indigenous Heritage site). It starts hard, with the bass in the red zone and the drums not far behind, and arpeggiated synths screaming like a drill sergeant. The plateaus, when they come, are mere toeholds for the next ascent. It’s a relentless, punishing piece. And when, near the end, Hauff drops everything but the kickdrum, it’s like watching the sun rise at an outdoor rave to, hearing nothing but your beating heart.

Andrew Forell

Rafael Anton Irisarri — Façadisms

Rafael Anton Irisarri creates music with the grandeur of a vast, wasted landscape. He brings his experience as a mastering engineer to bear on all his recordings, rendering them dense and immersive, stacked high with thick waves of guitar and synthesizer tone. Façadisms is no exception and features two highlights. “Control Your Soul’s Desire For Freedom” features searing cello from Julia Kent and angelic vocals by Hannah Elizabeth Cox, and “Forever Ago is Now” features string arrangements from T.R. Jordan, which carry the album’s most anthemic chord progression. Façadisms’ blasted textures are never less than compelling, but these tracks are twin peaks within the record’s glowering sonic geography.

Tim Clarke

Charlotte Jacobs — Atlas (New Amsterdam)

Charlotte Jacobs’s songs are a little shy. They lurk in corners and grow up from cracks. They venture fluidly out of empty space, eddying and cascading through echoing caverns, with just a little glitch beat or a surge of synth tones to ground them. Jacobs is a conservatory Belgian composer and singer here making her first solo album. Her voice comes in breathy flutters, a little like Mirah at her most acoustic and spare, but she hedges that fragile bloom in masses of digital sound. A devotee of Ableton, she makes the synth sound like all kinds of instruments, a quacking oboe in “Celeste,” a ghostly choir in CYTMH.” Records seldom sound simultaneously this bare and this layered. There are many elements in play, but all scrubbed clean and hemmed in by silence.

Jennifer Kelly

Alan Licht — Havens (VDSQ)

With Havens, Alan Licht flips the attack-decay-sustain-release envelope of the guitar on its head, folding notes and chords over each other in waves. He does this with a heft to his tone, so that chord progressions become waterfalls and melodies emerge like vine-like shoots, growing in many directions simultaneously. Licht’s songs mesmerize with repetition, but the tones resonate such that they fold back on themselves, creating entirely new patterns for us to discern. The cover art reflects his steel string sorcery, as a dull-colored house surrounded by twilit swirling clouds emits beams of red, yellow, and orange light from its many orifices. A variety of energy levels and frequencies are represented here, and they reveal themselves in surprising ways. Throughout his career, Licht has straddled the worlds of indie rock and the avant-garde, and Havens tugs at both sides, creating a new universe entirely: one where resonance rules over everything else.

Bryon Hayes

Longobardi + Cecchitelli — Maloviento (LINE)

Italian sound artists Ernesto Longobardi and Demetrio Cecchitelli create minimalist environmental works built from droning sub-oscillations that emerge from a haze of white noise. The four pieces on Maloviento, titled by duration, are arctic. Slow, evocative of shifting ice and wind swirling across bleak landscapes.. 14’24” is frigid amalgam of staticky cracks and sheets of white noise that rise and fall with increasing intensity. The duo intersperses these with sounds of dripping stalactites and pings of some distant beacon signaling into the abyss. It immerses the listener in an alien and alienating environment in which you find yourself clinging to these noises as the only way to get your bearing. 21’18” is slightly kinder. More recognizably human sounds emerge. Breath labored by cold, a trudge of footsteps and a muttering voice culminating in the introduction of a flute. Tentative at first, it gathers strength and warmth before being absorbed into the ice. Riveting stuff.

Andrew Forell

Man/Woman/Chainsaw — Eazy Peazy (Fat Possum)

Young London sextet Man/Woman/Chainsaw emerged from the scene that includes bands like Black Midi and Black Country, New Road with whom they share a similar omnivorous musical DNA. Vocalists, bassist Vera Leppanen and guitarist Billy Ward have been playing together since they were 14. Now approaching 20, and joined by contemporaries Emmie-Mae Avery on keys, violinist, Clio Harwood violin, Ben Holmes on guitar and drummer Lola Waterworth, M/W/C play punk infused theatrical rock, not quite as knotty as their near contemporaries, but fully embracing the chaotic energy of musicians pushing themselves to fit all their ideas into songs that dance delicate and furious. The acutely observed kitchen sink dramas of “The Boss” and “Sports Day” burst from the speakers, withering in word, and balanced by Harwood’s sawing violin and Avery’s delicate keys. Leppanen a powerhouse on the former, Ward all snarling self-deprecation on the latter. In contrast “Grow A Tongue In Time” is almost dainty with its curlicue of violin, bass, and keys tempered by Leppanen’s rasp that speaks of a desperate frustration echoed in the washes of cymbals that swarm towards the end. A band with space to grow and one to watch out for.

Andrew Forell

The Modern Folk — Primitive Future III (Practice)

This expansive collection spans 20 songs and nearly as many years for the folk centric but ambi-curious guitarist Joshua Moss (who, full disclosure, recently started writing for Dusted). His music here takes many forms, from the blues rock chug of “Shiver Shaker,” which could pass for an alternate universe outtake from Jon Spencer’s Heavy Trash to the cosmic twang of “Hippy Sandwich,” running closer to Ripley Johnson’s Rose City Band or the Heavy Lidders or whatever Matt Valentine is doing this week. There’s room, too, for lucid, radiant blues-folk picking, twined with bowing in “Braided Channels” or abetted in shimmery gossamer by Jen Powers on dulcimer on “You’ll Have That,” or left to strike out unadorned on luminous (and aptly titled) “Subdued.” Some artists try something different to prove they can. Moss lets the change grow out of old roots, supple, green and lovely. One other item of note: all proceeds are earmarked for hurricane relief.

Jennifer Kelly

Paprika — S/T (Iron Lung)

Paprika had already released the excellent, caustic Let’s Kill Punk LP this year, so this new EP is an unexpected November surprise. Are you thankful? It’s pungent and nasty stuff — Paprika sounds like the grittiest elements of NYC punk rawk, c 1976, partying with the hepped-up hardcore of Government Issue or Dirty Rotten EP-period DRI. If that sounds like fun, it sort of is, if you can listen past the nihilistic sentiments expressed in tunes like “Catatonic Pisser” and “Wasting Time.” This reviewer especially likes the self-lacerating qualities of “Supply Chain Wallet,” which explores the ways in which even filthy, greasy punks have a variety of fashion sense, implicating them in capital’s machinery. The band is more direct: “I’m chained to my wallet / Don’t you fuckers know? / Money is dirt.” Word.

Jonathan Shaw

Rock Candy — Swimming In (Carbon)

Rock Candy is Krysi Battalene (Mountain Movers, Headroom) and Emily Robb. Both are guitarists of just renown who, if they decided to open up an optical shop, would specialize in third-eyewear. Together, they refrain from six-string calisthenics in order to focus on nuanced expressions of motion. “Swimming In” is all about drift, albeit with enough surface tension for a stuttering guitar figure to loom over the undulating organ-scape. “Across A Mirage” sets slide vs. reverb, each fighting for footage on a mechanical Clydesdale beat. The cost of vinyl being what it is, some folks might question the point of picking up singles. This year, Rock Candy is the angle that dispels such faithless notions.

Bill Meyer

Sif — Aegis of the Hollowed King (self released)

If you were going to make solo instrumental doom metal about video games, Dark Souls is certainly one of the few that feels like it actually fits. What makes the second LP from New Orleans-based Sif work as well as it does, though, is how much Aegis of the Hollowed King engages with what’s actually compelling about the FromSoftware series beyond any surface level trappings of swords, monsters and boss fights. Here focusing on what even they admit is an “understandably maligned masterpiece,” Dark Souls II, these four tracks don’t try to overwrite the game’s fantastic actual soundtrack (by Motoi Sakuraba and Yuka Kitamura). Instead they invoke how much of the experience of painstakingly making your way across Drangleic is suffused with melancholy horror (yes, occasionally leavened with moments of brutally-won success). That atmosphere has been translated into a doom metal idiom, but that just means even the most elegiac elements here continue to crush.

Ian Mathers

Sulida — Utos (Clean Feed)

The phrase “good old-fashioned free jazz” could be applied to this Norwegian trio’s album, no disrespect intended and none dealt. Marthe Lea’s gruff tenor sax balances the unbridled emotion and considered poise of Ayler and Tchicai, and Jon Rune Strøm and Dag Erik Knedal Anderson negotiate points of structure vs. flow in ways that would do Hopkins and McCall proud. There are also moments that bring to mind Don Cherry if he had given full allegiance to the Swedish woods instead of the world. And yet, the character of each musician shines through, so that this music feels alive rather than merely reanimated. Ready to rumble by unfailingly lyrical, Utos is a friend in unfriendly times.

Bill Meyer

[seat-safety-switch]

For years, I’ve been fascinated by magnetism. You can just get these special rocks and click them together and then a whole bunch of free energy comes out. It’s free! And you probably get way, way too much. Wait, it’s not magnetism? Hoo boy this is going to be hard to explain to the condo board.

In recent years, the Japanese have leveraged the principles of magnetism to make a train that goes really fast. Like, really fast. Six hundred and three kilometers an hour fast, also known as “eat shit, passenger airliners.” It turns out that the big downer for trains is friction, and if you can instead hover the train above the tracks with magnets, you can shoot that thing like a railgun and nobody can stop you.

Further, the Japanese rail folks swear up and down that you can ride this train, right now, if you show up at the one station it goes to, and pay a bunch of money, and then win a sort of mini-lottery to be allowed to board it. And the weather co-operates. It’ll be ready by 2027, they explain quickly and then distract you from your questions by showing you some footage of them driving the fucking thing so hard that it has to be sprayed down constantly with water just so the air around it doesn’t spontaneously combust out of jealousy.

One of the things they had to solve is the tunnel boom effect. When you go through a tunnel as fast as this fucking thing does, the air you displace pops out on either side of you and out the back of the tunnel like a gunshot. A lot of complicated aerodynamics is required so that the train doesn’t fall off the “tracks” that it hovers over, and they celebrated solving this problem by making it go even faster. The resulting sonic boom is so loud and so dramatic that some farmers were complaining it would make their nearby cows explode. So they decided to go into the tunnels slower, more politely. That’s not how I’d do things. I’d turn it up even more out of spite. Clearly their boss has been feeling a lot of heat (or maybe a lot of meat) from Big Beef.

All this is to say: magnets! They’re great. In fact, they’re so great, that I’ve decided to leverage this exciting new technology in my own transportation. Namely, I bought a bunch of those cool welding magnets from Princess Auto and are using them to hold the driver’s door onto my Volare, rather than fix the hinges. It doesn’t even rattle as bad as it used to! Truly the wave of the future.

[frangipani-wanderlust]

PSA

For anyone who is setting up/moving into a new Samsung phone, mine started to auto-download the TikTok app and thank goodness I saw it and stopped it before that action completed. TikTok is well-known and documented to be horrendously privacy-invasive and its data-collection is not limited to people who sign up and consent to their policies.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/tiktok-data-privacy https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/19/technology/tiktok-browser-tracking.html https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/24/tiktok-can-track-users-every-tap-as-they-visit-other-sites-through-ios-app-new-research-shows https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/392312/tiktok-claims-non-users-consent-to-tracking-on-hul.html https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/tiktok-is-making-users-give-their-iphone-passwords-for-unclear-reasons/ar-AA1m7ahi https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/tiktok-privacy-breach-allegations-under-spotlight/ar-AA1m7mOy

Simply put, even using their website puts your privacy at risk. Downloading their app is simply, bottom line, not safe for anyone who is trying to minimize tracking. We should not have devices set to auto-download it, ever.

[askgildaseniors]

We dive into an in-depth unboxing and review of the Halo Collar, the smart dog collar that’s changing the game for pet owners. Discover how this innovative collar helps you create virtual fences, track your dog’s real-time location, and manage their activity—all through an easy-to-use app. Whether you're at home or on the go, the Halo Collar ensures your dog stays safe while enjoying off-leash freedom. Watch to learn more about its features, setup process, and how it can give you peace of mind.

HaloCollar #DogTraining #PetSafety #DogCollarReview #SmartCollar

🐶UNRIVALED FEATURES!🐶 CHECK OUT THE GAME-CHANGING FEATS OF THE NEW HALO COLLAR 3:

✅ New PrecisionGPS(™) Technology ✅ New Active GPS Antenna ✅ 24-hour Battery Life ✅ Auto-connect to Any Cellular Network Worldwide ✅ New Perfect Fit System ✅ Magnetic Charging Port ✅ New Colors: Orchid and Sunburst

CHAPTERS: 00:00: Unboxing and First Impressions 00:21: Collar Features 00:51: What’s inside the Box? 01:11: Setting up the Halo Collar 01:23: Halo Collar App Features 01:38: Personal Experience 02:25: Customizing Warnings and Intensity 02:37: Effectiveness and Ease of Use

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #58: 2007

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Beyoncé, Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, Fergie, T-Pain, Carrie Underwood, Plain White T's, Akon, Nelly Furtado, Fergie. End description]

More information about this blog here

This poll highlights some interesting changes in the direction pop music was heading. By this point, it was clear that pop music was shifting towards a more electronic sound and specifically club music. Buy U a Drank by T-Pain is especially notable for this. Most obviously, T-Pain was one of the most successful adopters of Auto-Tune as a stylistic choice. I touched on the plugin briefly when discussing Cher's Believe, but with both that sound and most of T-Pain's discography, the vocal effect was used to give off a futuristic, almost robotic quality to the voice. But that didn't stop Auto-Tune (and T-Pain specifically) from being used as a punching bag for "untalented singing". In case it needs to be said, the exaggerated use of Auto-Tune on these songs were a stylistic choice. If you're using Auto-Tune to fix a bad vocal performance and it sounds like that, someone messed up. (Also T-Pain actually is a very talented vocalist).

I'm also bringing up this song for how it represents a subgenre of southern hip-hop that would become forever associated with the decade: snap music. While it has its stylistic origins in crunk, snap was recognizable for its simpler production and more laid-back sound. Popular snap songs from the time include Laffy Taffy, Crank That (Soulja Boy), and It's Goin' Down. While not on this poll, Crank That (Soulja Boy) is relevant for being one of the first examples of a song taking off online (as in, someone made the song and posted it online themselves). The song was first posted to SoundClick before expanding to a wider audience on MySpace.

This subgenre is more commonly remembered as "ringtone rap", for how this sound really worked with the audio processing technology capable of cellphones at the time. Like "bubblegum pop" in the past and "mumble rap" in the future, the term "ringtone rap" was often used in a derogatory sense.

But the simpler production techniques found on these tracks is also emblematic of how music production was starting to become much more accessible. Crank That (Soulja Boy) was created using a demo version of FL Studio, and the drum loop for Rihanna's Umbrella comes from Apple's GarageBand (specifically Vintage Funk Kit 03). Technology was allowing people to have easier access to both music production and audiences.

Also, this was the year this site was founded. Yay.

[aamputation]

An old BNHA character I never shared with the world. I have bits and pieces of a what-if variation of BNHA wherein Izuku gains a Quirkless mentor via a school mentorship program when he's still attending Aldera.

~2022

GEAR INFO

Kinetic Absorbtion and Reutilization System (KAARS). Automatically absorbs kinetic energy with every impact recieved, whether it be from falls, enemy hits, etc. Energy can either be stored or released along suit pathways to enhance physical capabilities of the wearer, ie. increasing speed, strength, or lessening strain from taken damage. When system is maxed out, KAARS automatically glows. Brightness can be calibrated using the BC3s’ HUD AI system.

Bodysuit: Kevlar poly nano-weave with DNA-nullifying nanotech. Engineered to be slice and stab proof, bulletproof, heat and cold resistant, water-proof, corrosion resistant by way of slow auto-repairing properties.

External armor plating: versatile, ultra strong metal alloy (lightweight, flexible like rubber, strength and resilience of tungsten) micro weave Kevlar-hemp-linen poly blend. 

Gloves: same material as the suit encoded biometrics (can’t be removed by anyone but wearer) 

Boots: same metal alloy as the suit reinforcement combined with the same material as the Armor plating for maximum efficiency.

Mask: the same base material as external armor and is both physical protection and a filtration system, even functioning as a short term underwater rebreather. It works in conjunction with the BC3s, syncing to allow seamless communication if the wearer is working in a team. It also has mute functions, allowing no sound to escape so only team members synced to the communication loop can hear the wearer, and defaults to a voice distorter. This works by modulating the produced sound waves slightly, producing a warped distorted sound. The distortion effect will continue to work even if the mask is damanged, although there will be an increase in electric crackles along with the distortion. It is biometrically encoded and cannot be removed by anyone who hasn't been added to the base code.

Identity Concealing Technology

A bone conduction communication and audio system work in conjunction with facial recognition and identity concealing technology. (BC3s) They trick the eye and cameras by changing the way light refracts across the top half of the wearers face while not obscuring their field of vision. When active, it provides a heads up display (HUD) that only the user can see. The interface includes heat vision, night vision, and infrared modes. It also serves as a way to keep track of the connected suit's status, including the amount of stored kinetic energy.

BACKGROUND

FAMILY

Grew up blue collar. Childhood home was an older two story duplex, rented.

Single father (Peter Jones), alive and happily retired in a community, waiting for his wife to be released from prison.

Genuinely good person, loves his kids and his wife.

His Quirk is a physical mutation: literal shark teeth.

Mom (Sara Jones neé Davies) was arrested for villainous activity (as Gaslight, the Charismatic Villain) when Blake was 8. She remains in prison to current day.

Her Quirk is an Emitter type of Reality & Perception Manipulation. Basically, any word or phrase spoken can be used to manipulate another person's reality, memory, or perception. A literal manifestation of the manipulation technique known as "gaslighting."

Mom loves her family more than anything, which is why she turned to crime to help support them.

She taught all her kids illegal things before she was arrested and her grey morals influenced Blake strongly later in life.

3 Siblings!

Gabriel Jones, older brother. Works as a Wall Street trader. Alive and well, they get along okay but have massively different political opinions.

Quirk is an Emitter type: minor reality alteration, "probability modification".

Charlotte Jones, older sister. Private school teacher. Alive and healthy, they get along very well, especially so when Blake chooses to join the Aldera mentorship program.

Quirk is a mutation: sharp teeth like dad, but not multiple rows or frequent tooth loss/growth. Will rapidly regrow lost teeth, though.

Charlie Jones, younger twin brother. Academic. Alive, doing okay. On disability due to injury that left him paraplegic. He has similar intellect but his skews less towards hard science and more towards philosophy and psychology. Currently finishing his Psy.D he had put on hold due to his injury and subsequent recovery.

Quirk is an Emitter type with minor mutations: Reality manipulation, "speak into existence", manifesting. Also has sharper than average teeth like older sister, but it is secondary.

OTHER FAMILY

Grew up with a present extended family; maternal uncle was close to Blake. Former vigilante, retired.

Quirk is minor thought manipulation, Inception-like.

EARLY LIFE

Blake had a few close friends and a fairly normal childhood. Their Quirkless status inhibited their number of friends to some extent. Despite being diagnosed Quirkless, they also have fairly sharp teeth like their dad, sister, and twin. It's minor enough that it can only be called a genetic trait rather than a mutation quirk.

Their high intellect was noticed from a young age, as well as their twin's, and only increased as time went on.

Participated in gymnastics during elementary school years.

Bullied in middle school, lost most of their friends. Stopped caring about other's perceptions, outwardly cultivated their now-signature fox-like grin and cheery expression as default.

Got into engineering and computers.

Slowly stopped doing gymnastics and switched to running and martial arts.

Forcibly maintained a cheery disposition, despite cultivating some seriously grey morals and a big sadistic streak. Questioned if they were sociopathic. Twin brother yelled at them for it. Never questioned it again.

Public school career, joined track and field team. Distance runner, pole vaulter.

Senior year, got into tons of colleges, all with full ride scholarships. Some athletic scholarships as well.

Began vigilante work in late High School. They were bored and not challenged enough intellectually, so they turned to vigilantism to pass the time, to play around with their own perception of justice. They discovered they were quite good at it.

LATER LIFE

In college, they began building support gear and doing subsequent research into computer science with a focus on hacking.

Transitioned from distance running and pole vaulting to parkour. Restarted martial arts.

Finished undergrad summa cum laude and immediately started grad school.

Continued vigilantism, started getting recognized by the local heroes. Decided to turn their natural lucky streak into the basis of a career but understood that improving their skills was and is essential.

Mastered four different martial arts and multiple melee weapons.

Mastered hacking.

Started learning marksmanship.

Improved current support gear, focused on kinetics and AI tech.

Completed Masters, moved to doctorate.

At this point, their career as a vigilante is fairly well known amongst the local underground heroes as someone who isn't afraid to eschew morals when necessary.

Continued improving their support gear.

Became part of a small underground hero group (The Advantage Hero: Oracle [although she was often pulled away to more critical cases due to her quirk, they never actually met in person], The Enduring Hero: Adamant, a former limelight hero, The Electrifying Hero: Voltaic, who is mostly limelight, and Contractor, an underground support hero) and began getting asked to join larger scale operations by the USHC [United States Hero Commission].

Finished Doctorate, primed by the USHC to go legal but also received an offer from I-Island to pursue a second doctorate as well as a massive research grant.

Torn for several months between both options, ultimately chose to get the second doctorate.

Vigilantism is put on hold, but their physical conditioning continues. Always intended to pick it back up after completing their time on I-Island.

Finishes doctorate on I-Island, receives extremely generous job offer from HAI Japan branch. Accepts.

Moves to Japan, manages to learn the language.

After a year, is promoted to lead engineer and secondary innovator of HAI's R&D department.

Continues working for HAI for 3 years, continues improving their own fitness, capabilities, and support gear despite not being active in Japan.

Decides to join the Mentorship program, ultimately meets Midoriya Izuku.

When I had originally morphed this character into a BNHA universe one, it was with the intent of using them in a piece of fanfiction that will probably never see the light of day, hence their story ends where Izuku's begins.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ilana Berger at MMFA:

In a new analysis of electric vehicle-related content on Facebook, Media Matters found that negative stories made up the vast majority of content, particularly on right-leaning and politically nonaligned U.S. news and political pages, a trend which does not align with the optimistic outlook of EV adoption and technological advancements. Since 2021, the Biden administration has allocated billions of dollars toward meeting the ambitious goal of making half of all new cars sold electric or hybrid over the next few years. Provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS Act have provided tax credits and other incentives to jump start electric vehicle sales and infrastructure such as charging stations, domestic battery manufacturing, critical mineral acquisition, in addition to preparing the automotive industry workforce for the transition. 

In March, an Environmental Protection Agency rule setting strict limits on pollution from new gas-powered cars primed automakers for success in meeting these goals.  Biden’s EV push will continue to play an important role in the upcoming presidential election. Former president and current GOP candidate Donald Trump has insisted that Biden’s policies benefit China, which makes up the largest share of the global EV market. In March, while talking about the current state of the auto industry, Trump declared, “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.” Economists disagree. 

The comment tracks with years of outrage and opposition from Republican politicians, right-wing media, and fossil fuel industry surrogates, who have often disparaged the new technology and related policy and misleadingly framed the EV push as a threat to American jobs and national security. Constant attacks on EVs from the right have helped fuel a politically divided market, where people who identify as Democrats are now much more likely to buy them or consider buying them, while nearly 70% of Republican respondents to a recent poll said they “would not buy” an EV. So far in 2024, headline after headline announced EV sales slumps and proclaimed that “EV euphoria is dead,'' despite reports of “robust” growth. In February, CNN changed a headline about EV sales on its website from a success story to a failure. Despite the positive long term outlook for EVs based on indicators like sales and government investments, the discourse around electric vehicles is often pessimistic.

[...] Right-wing media have been driving anti-EV sentiment (with help from fossil fuel industry allies) since the start of Biden’s term. This trend was clearly reflected in Media Matters’ analysis. Out of the top 100 posts related to EVs on right-leaning pages, 95% were negative, earning over a million interactions in 2024 so far.  But on Facebook, politically nonaligned pages fed into this trend as well. Nearly three quarters (74%) of EV related top posts on nonaligned pages had a negative framing. These posts generated 83% of all interactions on EV-related top posts from nonaligned pages. 

On non-aligned and right-wing Facebook pages, anti-electric vehicle content-- likely fueled by a mix of climate crisis denial and culture war resentments-- draws lots of reliable engagement, in contrast to the reality of increased EV adoption in recent years.

[marinerainbow]

I know that the fandom isn't big, but after rewatching the movie, I have something to share with the... 5 people who like this movie XD

Happily N'Ever After Headcannons

Actually, considering how little lore we have for this world, I guess this is more of a 'if I directed the movie' post? Or me just projecting my love for hidden lore onto this movie? XD

Alright, let's get the biggest plothole out of the way; how come some characters seem to know what's going on (Rick, possibly the prince), while others don't (Frieda, Cinderella, etc)? Well, I think that since the Wizard lives above the castle, I'm guessing that the royal family, and those connected to them like the servants, know that their fates are intertwined with Fairytales and scales, and that these stories have played out over and over again. Some know more than others, but still.

The royalty of Cinderella's story, in particular, knows most I think. The royal portrait we see the bad guys throwing swords at shows the prince flanked by who I'm guessing are his parents. And it looks like they are passing onto him the same instruction manual that he's practically glued to. When you connect this to how... Dead eyed the other royals are (Rapunzel in particular. Did anybody notice how she's just... Staring off into space all the time? Only showing emotion when her prince shows up?), my guess is that since these stories have played out so many times, some of the characters have basically become brain dead- or are on auto pilot at best- and the King and Queen saw this in their son, and tried to make it easier for him to stay on track. Even though they knew that the wizard would ensure he married his Cinderella.

We don't see much of the bad guys in this movie. However, since that one troll said "I've never seen that before!" When Frieda summoned her beacon, I'm guessing the majority of them are aware of the rules of Fairytale Land. Or at least that they keep finding themselves repeating history. Since these villains can get gruesome ends (especially since these seem to be Grimms Fairytales. If you know, you know 💀), my guess is that their endings make it really stick with them. And maybe since they aren't dead eyed, they're the ones constantly trying to change their endings (being more aggressive, trying new tactics, etc), but since they couldn't temper with the scales like Frieda, none of them were successful before.

So tldr; the royals know what's going on because they're neighbors with the wizard, the majority of Fairytale Land is suffering from numb braincells since their lives are being carried out for them, and the villains are trying to fight the scales that are literally tipped against them. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's move onto other aspects of the movie.

I know the wizard barely has 2 minutes if screen time, but I like to think he's one of the Grimm Brothers. I mean, it's right there! No Fairytale Flip Media is complete without utilizing the Brothers Grimm being the guys in charge. But if that's the case, where's the other brother? I think he might be on our side of the world. Maybe The Wizard was meeting his brother in Scotland? Maybe his brother is making sure that the Fairytales are still loved- and in turn, alive- by us? That's what I'm thinking.

That could explain how Fairytale Land has some modern influence/technology. The Dwarves' defenses and the witches' motorcycle-esque brooms, for instance. The second brother brought some technology from our world to Fairytale Land at some point, and The Wizard just had to make it roll with the stories... Which shouldn't be too far fetched considering he was completely cool with Ella staying with Rick in the end (assuming he didn't reset her story as usual).

It is hard to say for sure whether everyone is immortal, or the stories are passed down onto the next generation. However, I'm thinking that, as long as your story doesn't end with your death, you won't die (I mean, Jack survived being squashed into a pancake. I know this is a kids movie, but I need to make lore here-). And if you do die, you are ressurected for the sake of the story repeating itself.

The Wizard does have other assistants outside of Munk and Mambo. The Fairy Godmother is one of them. However, since she gets Cinderella confused with Pinocchio at first, I'm thinking maybe she's in charge of all the 'magic fairy' roles in the stories. As such, she's kind of... Got her mind wrapped around other stuff 😅 not to mention she's pretty old. Overworked, probably as old as Fairytale Land itself, is it any wonder she spends her downtime singing and dancing with mice?

There aren't much, but these are all I got so far about the world itself rather than the individual characters. I hope you guys like these! (And for those who love them just as much as I do, don't worry. I'm gonna make a HC set for the three big Bad wolves too. They were the highlight of the film next to Frieda)

[faizan2f]

Virtual Classroom Solutions

Set up a Best Smart Virtual Classroom Solutions with PeopleLink

The need for smart classrooms in schools, colleges, universities and online tutorials is increasing day by day. It is increasingly important for the technical departments of Schools, Universities, and Colleges to understand how to set up the best smart classroom solution for their organization.

An ideal smart and virtual classroom solution not only should provide a seamless classroom environment for the students and teachers but should be easy to set up and use and Affordable to implement. PeopleLink offers smart classroom solutions that transform every traditional classroom to a boundary-less virtual space where students and teachers can interact in a face to face real life like session very easily. This on-demand learning helps students to have a better learning curve wherever they are – either on-campus or off-campus.

With PeopleLink’s complete online classroom package that operates on a unified communications platform, All you need is a moderate bandwidth network coverage in your school or college or any online teaching institute to get the maximum user experience. With innovative and meaningful use of technology, PeopleLink is transforming the way teachers teach and students learn in schools.

Smart classroom technology is a success as visually attractive methods of teaching engage the audio-visual senses and are proven to be more appealing to the students.

Let us understand the main basic requirements to set up a successful Smart Virtual Classroom Solution with PeopleLink.

Desktop , Laptop, Tab or Mobile with Internet Connectivity

The use of familiar technology like desktop or laptop makes students feel more comfortable and confident. Students can connect from their home or distant location to the teacher using the device of their choice as a desktop, laptop or mobile.

Digital Podium (at Teacher’s location)

Digital Podiums are the modern version of the classic podiums with inbuilt touch screen monitor and laptop interface. This e-podium’s laptop interface is just like any other laptop, enabling you to connect to the internet with video, audio, USB ports, etc. These new-gen podiums are ideal for any smart online classroom and pave way for smarter lectures, seminars, and presentations. These smart podiums come with microphones and digital signal processor which produces HD quality audio.

The lecturer/instructor can operate the whiteboard from the podium using the touch screen monitor, which eradicates the visibility issues among the audience. Proper engaging with the students/attendees can be done. These seamless designs give your smart class room’s or auditorium’s rostrum a great advantage. PeopleLink provides a wide variety of digital podiums.

Auto Speaker Tracking Camera – The teacher can move around freely without the need of an additional person to manage the camera.

The PeopleLink’s speaker tracking camera as the name suggests works with audio positioning and face detection technology. With 12x optical zoom, and 72.5 ° field of view the camera precisely tracks your speaker. This audio-visual tracking camera has inbuilt meeting algorithms that switch between zoom in the speaker and the panoramic view of the enter online classroom as programmed.

This smart camera is exclusively designed for video conferencing, video chats, streaming, recordings from virtual classrooms, auditoriums, etc. The H.264/H.265 video compression and 1080p resolution with 60 fps make every video call or recordings crystal clear giving face-to-face like user experience. This teacher tracking camera has HDMI output, audio output and audio inputs highly compatible with your existing video conferencing system.

Student Tracking Camera – Keep track of all Students connected from different locations

PeopleLink’s student tracking camera is a smart PTZ camera that auto-tracks, and captures the audience in online classrooms, auditoriums or any conference rooms. Auto-tracking and auto-zoom in and zoom out (up to 20x optical zoom) are possible with the embedded image processing and analysis algorithms. Users can configure these cameras very easily with just a few steps. These auto-tracking video conferencing cameras can record high-quality videos (1080p with H.264 video compression) and stores in a local storage module. It also has a static wide-angle camera to capture the classroom at a wider angle.

Where to use this?

Consider that your math teacher has not come to your class due to personal reasons. But has informed that he will connect from home as he knows that yours is a online smart classroom. In such a scenario, the student tracking camera relays the picture-perfect video to the remote location where the lecturer is located.

Document Visualizer – Project Your Documents on Large Screen

Document Visualizers is one of the key players in a smart classroom, meeting room, or training room as it helps every student participant to view the shared documents on screen at full HD resolution. PeopleLink offers you industry best document visualizer named PeopleLink iVision Beta. The smart camera of this device allows you to magnify the document up to 32x optical zoom and 16x digital zoom making the document easily readable. The camera can be rotated at an angle of 350 degrees both horizontally and vertically so that you can get improved coverage of the document.

This camera document scanner’s output can be connected not only to a projector but also to Desktop PC, Laptop, and RGB display out. You could also use the HDMI Port to transmit both high definition video and audio output at the same time.

This makes the document visualizer highly versatile and compatible. The document visualizer’s peripheral also helps to connect to a mic, two audio inputs (from PC and laptop) and audio out enabling the device to send audio along with the shared documents.

Its’ portable design, the camera cover, the intuitive control panel and the left/right fill lights on top of the document tray are added advantages of this document camera visualizer.

Audio DSP and Ceiling Microphones – Hear every Participant Clearly

Are you are looking for a complete and integrated solution for high-quality audio communication for your training rooms, virtual classrooms or any conferencing rooms? Try our PeopleLink DSP CM Pro, you will know why it is the best choice. Our Voice Collaboration DSPs are configured with echo cancellation, noise suppression, and high SNR.

Our Digital Signal Processors supports the wireless mic and has the best mixer which does intelligent sound mixing and recording. The audio processing is basically done with the 3rd Generation of Auctopus Audio Processing Algorithm. Along with this DSP CM Pro, PeopleLink offers Spherical ceiling microphones, which is capable of picking up HD audio up to 10 meters.

This digital audio processor has six 3.81 phoenix interface and bus structure for transferring data. It also has a b-type USB port. This Digital single processor with ceiling microphones is highly compatible with your audio and video software. On the whole, you can present your virtual classroom with streamlined audio using this Audio DSP and ceiling microphones.

Interactive Display – Touch sensitive Display for interactive learning

The ultimate aim of online smart classrooms is to present the students with intuitive sessions having more scope for interactions. Peoplelink’s interactive displays work hand in hand with you to provide the best virtual classroom experience for both on-campus and remote students. One such notable recommendation is PeopleLink Interactive Display T86, a 86 inch display with 16:09 aspect ratio and 3840 x 2160 pixels 4k ultra HD resolution.

With these interactive flat panel, you can write using your finger and also with an interactive pen. This stunning display provides up to 10 touchpoints, that is, you can write with your 10 fingers at the same time. Isn’t that great?! Yes, when installed on a virtual classroom, you could call up to 10 students at a time and make them write on the screen.

This interactive touch display operates both on Windows and Android operating systems, which opens the horizon of embedding interactive tools, exclusive editing tools, and various learning software. The lecturer can plan for fun engaging activities with all the student participants and easily connect to any mobile device like Chromebook, laptops, tablets, ipads which is welcome to be used in schools and universities worldwide.

With the lightweight and slim design and minimal bezel design makes it easy for installation on walls and does not protrude much from the wall.

This modern and wide interactive screen plays a vital role in the smart classroom and also in training rooms easily bringing all the participants in unison. Try our PeopleLink Interactive Display T86.

MultiLocation Video Conferencing for Education that works even at Low Bandwidth

When it comes to remote teaching or learning, PeopleLink’s Omnipresence is an apt multi-location video conferencing solution for conducting virtual smart classroom sessions.Omnipresence FeaturesBenefits/UsesVideosGet Ultra HD 4K videosEasy integrationConnects with any remote system with easy integration. Also, deploy at reasonable installation and operational costSmart touch-enabled controllerPeopleLink Insta Controller, a smart portable gadget that controls the entire conferencing system in just a single touch – session initiation, virtual classroom AV control, lighting control of the classroom.Supports up to 16 screens (single or multiple) in houseIn your classroom, you can have up to 16 screens showing remote participants and also supports 16 camera inputsGet uncompromised video audio quality even at low bandwidthNot all remote students may have access to the high-speed internet; sometimes students would also want to take sessions while travelling. Having this in mind, PeopleLink has designed this solution to work even in low bandwidth internet.Share data easilyYou could share rich contextual media or data to all your student participants. By this way, you can make them understand the concepts what you are arriving at very easily. Teaching and learning process is quick here.Transmits multiple video feeds to remote connectorsThe students at remote locations can view the perfect video streaming and transmits multiple videos to the students connected from different part of the world.

All these products and solutions by PeopleLink, serve a great purpose in a smart classroom helping not only the students physically present in the classroom but also those who have connected remotely. PeopleLink’s smart classroom solutions are of great support to the technology-embraced educational systems.

[robfinancialtip]

Introducing the latest innovation in pet safety: the NEW HALO COLLAR 3. Elevating the standards of GPS dog fences and trackers, this groundbreaking device is poised to transform the way you safeguard your furry companion. Explore the exciting enhancements packed into the HALO COLLAR 3:

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Discover all the essential details about the HALO COLLAR 3. What sets it apart? How does the GPS dog fence function? How accurate is its tracking system? Uncover these answers and more as we delve into the comprehensive features of this remarkable device.

With the HALO COLLAR 3, bid farewell to conventional fences and constant monitoring of your pet's whereabouts. This state-of-the-art collar harnesses real-time GPS technology to establish an invisible yet highly effective containment boundary. Say goodbye to cumbersome installations and physical barriers limiting your pet's freedom!

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Experience the epitome of tracking prowess with the HALO COLLAR 3. Monitor your pet's real-time location on the app's map, facilitating swift retrieval in case they wander off. Track their movements, access historical data, and receive boundary breach alerts—all with unmatched precision.

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[esoxy]

So let's get into the nitty-gritty technical details behind my latest project, the National Blue Trail round-trip search application available here:

This project has been fun with me learning a lot about plenty of technologies, including QGis, PostGIS, pgRouting, GTFS files, OpenLayers, OpenTripPlanner and Vita.

So let's start!

In most of my previous GIS projects I have always used custom made tools written in ruby or Javascript and never really tried any of the "proper" GIS tools, so it was a good opportunity for me to learn a bit of QGIS. I hoped I could do most of the work there, but soon realized it's not fully up to the job, so I had to extend the bits to other tools at the end. For most purposes I used QGis to import data from various sources, and export the results to PostGIS, then do the calculations in PostGIS, re-import the results from there and save them into GeoJSON. For this workflow QGIS was pretty okay to use. I also managed to use it for some minor editing as well.

I did really hope I could avoid PostGIS, and do all of the calculation inside QGIS, but its routing engine is both slow, and simply not designed for multiple uses. For example after importing the map of Hungary and trying to find a single route between two points it took around 10-15 minutes just to build the routing map, then a couple seconds to calculate the actual route. There is no way to save the routing map (at least I didn't find any that did not involve coding in Python), so if you want to calculate the routes again you had to wait the 10-15 minute of tree building once more. Since I had to calculate around 20.000 of routes at least, I quickly realized this will simply never work out.

I did find the QNEAT3 plugin which did allow one to do a N-M search of routes between two set of points, but it was both too slow and very disk space intense. It also calculated many more routes than needed, as you couldn't add a filter. In the end it took 23 hours for it to calculate the routes AND it created a temporary file of more than 300Gb in the process. After realizing I made a mistake in the input files I quickly realized I won't wait this time again and started looking at PostGIS + pgRouting instead.

Before we move over to them two very important lessons I learned in QGIS:

There is no auto-save. If you forget to save and then 2 hours later QGIS crashes for no reason then you have to restart your work

Any layer that is in editing mode is not getting saved when you press the save button. So even if you don't forget to save by pressing CTRL/CMD+S every 5 seconds like every sane person who used Adobe products ever in their lifetimes does, you will still lose your work two hours later when QGIS finally crashes if you did not exit the editing mode for all of the layers

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So let's move on to PostGIS.

It's been a while since I last used PostGIS - it was around 11 years ago for a web based object tracking project - but it was fairly easy to get it going. Importing data from QGIS (more specifically pushing data from QGIS to PostGIS) was pretty convenient, so I could fill up the tables with the relevant points and lines quite easily. The only hard part was getting pgRouting working, mostly because there aren't any good tutorials on how to import OpenStreetMap data into it. I did find a blog post that used a freeware (not open source) tool to do this, and another project that seems dead (last update was 2 years ago) but at least it was open source, and actually worked well. You can find the scripts I used on the GitHub page's README.

Using pgRouting was okay - documentation is a bit hard to read as it's more of a specification, but I did find the relevant examples useful. It also supports both A* search (which is much quicker than plain Dijsktra on a 2D map) and searching between N*M points with a filter applied, so I hoped it will be quicker than QGIS, but I never expected how quick it was - it only took 5 seconds to calculate the same results it took QGIS 23 hours and 300GB of disk space! Next time I have a GIS project I'm fairly certain I will not shy away from using PostGIS for calculations.

There were a couple of hard parts though, most notably:

ST_Collect will nicely merge multiple lines into one single large line, but the direction of that line looked a bit random, so I had to add some extra code to fix it later.

ST_Split was similarly quite okay to use (although it took me a while to realize I needed to use ST_Snap with proper settings for it to work), but yet again the ordering of the segments were off a slight bit, but I was too lazy to fix it with code - I just updated the wrong values by hand.

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The next project I had never used in the past was OpenTripPlanner. I did have a public transport project a couple years ago but back then tools like this and the required public databases were very hard to come by, so I opted into using Google's APIs (with a hard limit to make sure this will never be more expensive than the free tier Google gives you each month), but I have again been blown away how good tooling has become since then. GTFS files are readily available for a lot of sources (although not all - MAV, the Hungarian Railways has it for example behind a registration paywall, and although English bus companies are required to publish this by law - and do it nicely, Scottish ones don't always do it, and even if they do finding them is not always easy. Looks to be something I should push within my party of choice as my foray into politics)

There are a couple of caveats with OpenTripPlanner, the main one being it does require a lot of RAM. Getting the Hungarian map, and the timetables from both Volánbusz (the state operated coach company) and BKK (the public transport company of Budapest) required around 13GB of RAM - and by default docker was only given 8, so it did crash at first with me not realizing why.

The interface of OpenTripPlanner is also a bit too simple, and it was fairly hard for me to stop it from giving me trips that only involve walking - I deliberately wanted it to only search between bus stops involving actual bus travel as the walking part I had already done using PostGIS. I did however check if I could have used OpenTripPlanner for that part as well, and while it did work somewhat it didn't really give optimal results for my use case, so I was relieved the time I spend in QGIS - PostGIS was not in vain.

The API of OpenTripPlanner was pretty neat though, it did mimic Google's route searching API as much as possible which I used in the past so parsing the results was quite easy.

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Once we had all of the data ready, the final bit was converting it to something I can use in JavaScript. For this I used my trusted scripting language I use for such occasion for almost 20 years now: ruby. The only interesting part here was the use of Encoded Polylines (which is Google's standard of sending LineString information over inside JSON files), but yet again I did find enough tools to handle this pretty obscure format.

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Final part was the display. While I usually used Leaflet in the past I really wanted to try OpenLayers, I had another project I had not yet finished where Leaflet was simply too slow for the data, and I had a very quick look at OpenLayers and saw it could display it with an acceptable performance, so I believed it might be a good opportunity for me to learn it. It was pretty okay, although I do believe transparent layers seem to be pretty slow under it without WebGL rendering, and I could not get WebGL working as it is still only available as a preview with no documentation (and the interface has changed completely in the last 2 months since I last looked at it). In any case OpenLayers was still a good choice - it had built in support for Encoded Polylines, GPX Export, Feature selection by hovering, and a nice styling API. It also required me to use Vita for building the application, which was a nice addition to my pretty lacking knowledge of JavaScript frameworks.

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All in all this was a fun project, I definitely learned a lot I can use in the future. Seeing how well OpenTripPlanner is, and not just for public transport but also walking and cycling, did give me a couple new ideas I could not envision in the past because I could only do it with Google's Routing API which would have been prohibitively expensive. Now I just need to start lobbying for the Bus Services Act 2017 or something similar to be implemented in Scotland as well